Automotive windshield wiper blades are required to perform flawlessly in widely varying applications, for example, on curved as well as flat windshields. However, the problem of wiping the severely curved windshields of the latest automobiles has not heretofore been solved. The problem is rooted in the fact that flexure of the elastomeric material of the blade has heretofore been utilized by most wiper blades to position the wiping edge of the wiper blade on the surface to be wiped. Such flexure is about an axis extending parallel to the wiping edge. However, when wiping a curved windshield the blade must also flex about an axis extending at a right angle to the wiping edge to accommodate windshield curvature.
Articulated wiper blade assemblies that utilize rotation of a wiping blade relative to a carrier are known, for example, the wiper blade assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,874. Such blade assemblies exhibit improved performance over non-articulated blades on curved surfaces, but fail to solve the aforesaid problem since the carrier of such known assemblies exhibit a relatively high moment of inertia about a transverse axis that attenuates flexure of the blade assembly resulting in disproportionate unit pressure on the wiping blade as it passes over curved portions of the windshield.